Spring.



C. P. RANDOLPH.

SPRING.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 17, 1915.

1,201,624. Patented Oct 17,1916.

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CLABEORN P. RANDOLPH, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 17, 1916.

Application filed February 1'7, 1915. Serial No. 8,744.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLABEORN P. RAN- DOLPH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Spring, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to springs and has for its primary object to provide a spring which will give the maximum amount of resiliency and which is provided with a plurality of sections connected in pairs and the pairs being connected by a strap or other flexible member in such fashion that the recoil of a load will be gradually cushioned.

Another object of the invention is to provide a spring having a plurality of sections connected in pairs to form a main spring and a secondary or overload spring which assists in supporting a load after the main spring has been compressed beyond a certain degree and which serves to gradually check the expansion of the main spring and thus cushion the recoil.

With these, and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrange- I ment of parts as will be hereinafter fully described, illustrated and claimed.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is an lnslde elevation of the spring showingby dotted lines the positions of the sections when supporting a load;-Fig. 2 is an outside elevation of the spring; Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional View on the plane of line 33 of Fig. 2; Fig. A is a section on the plane of line 4.4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a transverse vertical sectional view showing how the upper section of the overload spring moves between guide fingers carried by the upper section of the main spring when the main spring is carrying a load; and Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view of the strap attaching member which is provided with the guide fingers.

Referring in detail to the drawings by numerals; 1 designates as an entirety the main spring which comprises an upper section 2 and a lower section 3, each of said sections consisting of a plurality of leaves as shown. The leaves of the lower section are bowed upwardly and the leaves of the upper section are bowed downwardly so that when the terminals of the sections are connected as illustrated a full elliptic spring is formed.

In addition to the sections 2 and 3 a pair of spring sections l and 5 are provided, each of said sections being composed of a plurality of leaves and the terminals of the sections being connected as indicated at 6 to form a second elliptic spring somewhat smaller than the first mentioned elliptic spring and this second mentioned spring may be termed an overload spring. The lower sections 3 and 4 are connected to one another by a rivet 7 passing through their central points and as a further means of connection a pair of U-shaped fasteners 8 are provided. These fasteners embrace the leaves of the sections 8 and 4 and their clepending legs extend through a plate 9 and are attached thereto by nuts 10. The fasteners 8 serve also to secure a bracket 11 in position on the top of the section 4:. This bracket is of anincreased width at its central portion and is provided with two pairs of upturned arms 12-. A bolt 13 connects the arms of one pair'and a bolt 14: connects the arms of the other pair, said bolts being secured by means of the nuts 15 and being for a purpose to be hereinafter set forth.

The leaves of the upper section 2 of the main spring 1 are connected at their centers by a rivet 16 and alsoby means of upturned U-shaped fasteners 17. These fasteners cross under the leaves of the section 2 and their upstanding legs pass through a bracket 18 and are secured thereto by means of nuts 19-. This bracket is provided with a depending portion 20 on one side thereof so that the spring may be easily attached to the body of a vehicle.

The upper sections 2 and 5 are normally 14: and finally back to the buckle 22.

The attaching plate 23 is secured to the upper section 2 by means of the U-shaped fasteners 17 and has its central portion depressed as-at 24: to provide a runway for the strap. Guide fingers 25 depend from the opposite sides of the depressed portion 24.

spaced from each other and are connected and serve to prevent a lateral movement of the overload spring 5 relative to the main spring 1 when a sufficient load is being carried to compress the springs sufiiciently to bring the upper section of the overload spring between the fingers 25. The upper leaf 26 of the section 5 is offset at its central portion 27 to provide a passage 28 for the strap 21 and the two leaves of the section 5 are connected on opposite sides of said passage by means of fasteners 29 so that there is no possibility of the strap working sidewise from the passage 28.

30 designates a bumper carried by the section 5 to cushion the contact between the section 5 and the section 2.

When the spring is being made ready for use the strap 21 is tightened until a tension is placed upon the various spring sections and this tension should be made sufficiently great to draw the section 5 of the overload spring toward the section t of the same spring. WVhen the leaves are thus tensioned by the strap 21 the overload spring formed by the sections a and 5 will expand and take up slack in the strap 21. When the main spring 1 'is compressed sufficiently far it comes into engagement with the overload spring and this latter spring then acts as an auxiliary to the main spring and assists in supporting the load. When a recoil takes place the force thereof is gradually diminished by the action of the strap 21 and the overload spring. As the main spring is expanding under the recoil action of the load the strap 21 acts to compress the recoil spring and in this fashion gradually check the expansion of the main spring.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be seen that I have provided a spring composed of a pair of elliptic springs arranged one within the other and connected by a strap in such fashion that the expansion of the outer spring which takes place during the recoil movement is checked and cushioned by the inner spring which is compressed by the expansion of the outer spring.

It is noted that the connections comprising the arms 12, bolts 13, 14, strap 21 and plate 23 function in such manner that the compressive movement of the main spring in one direction will produce compressive movement of the auxiliary spring in the opposite direction. The advantage of this is that the compressive movements and also the expansive movements of the main and aux- 1l1ary springs counteract one another so that the compressive and expansive movements will not tend to cause bodily movement of the springs and consequent raising and lowering of the vehicle body.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention it will be understood that minor changes in construction and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the claims.

What I claim is:

1. In combination, two springs each formed of opposing semi-elliptical members, and an endless strap shiftably connected to each of the members of said springs so that expansion of either spring will produce com pression of the other spring.

2. A spring comprising a main elliptic spring, a secondary elliptic spring Within said main elliptic spring, and a flexible member connecting said elliptic springs so that an expansion of the main elliptic spring results in a contraction of the secondary elliptic spring.

8. A spring comprising a main elliptic spring, a secondary elliptic spring within the main elliptic spring and having one leaf thereof rigidly secured to one leaf of the main elliptic spring, and a strap slidably connected to said springs so that an expansion of the main elliptic spring causes a contraction of the secondary elliptic spring.

4. In combination, two springs, one of said springs being formed of opposing semielliptical members, and a flexible member slidably connected to the opposed members and to the other spring so that expansion of either spring will produce compression of the other spring.

5. A main spring, an auxiliary spring, a strap connecting said springs to one another, and means engaged by the strap to cause movement of the auxiliary spring in one direction when the main spring is moved in the opposite direction.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Los Angeles, California, this 6th day of February, 1915.

CLABEORN P. RANDOLPH.

In presence of- LORA M. BOWERS, L. BELLE WEAVER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

